Spirits Brands Struggle with Tablet and Mobile

ByHoma Zaryouni ·

17 March 2014

Our Digital IQ Index: Spirits found even though the category has invested more in mobile sites than last year, there is room for improvement. 65% of brands maintain a mobile-optimized site (up from 33% a year ago), but only 41% have responsive design. 40% of brands simply import the desktop experience to mobile. 4% of sites have flash and formatting issues.

A mobile-optimized site is especially important to Spirits brands because of age gates presented on almost all sites. Touch-friendly features such as a roller selection or large button make them much easier to bypass. A few stellar mobile sites such Jim Beam and Svedka rise above others in the category with optimized age gates, navigation menus and geolocation-enabled retail locators. But most brands prefer to invest in mobile with apps. 62% have an app on iOS, flat from last year. As consumers become pickier about which apps to keep and download on their smartphone, mobile investments could shift to sites.

Spirits brand tablet sites were much worse. Captain Morgan and Beefeater were the only brands who had invested in sites that seamlessly adapts to screen type. A quarter of brand sites had issues such as broken videos, inability to load, and inability to run Adobe Flash elements.